It’s always a blast to ride your bike on a holiday. I got my bike cleaned, tuned and went out of town.

LAKE SHORE RIDIN’It’s always great to be in the wild. Our happy little group went down south and explored the wonderful world of Lake Caliraya and the area around it. We arrived there early to pitch our tents by the lake and went about riding. My friends brought their fat bikes because according to research, it was very muddy there and it was almost impossible to ride the sticky mud. We braved it anyway.

We enjoyed the rolling paved roads then turned into one fire road and started our trek into the mud. At first, the mud was manageable and ride-able but as we got deeper inside, the dirt became quicksand. The 3.8 tires were no match to the deep mud. We decided to go and explore new trails and follow the footpaths along the rolling hills.

Our happy little group didn’t know where to go so we just pedaled wherever and hoped that it didn’t go to a dead end. If we see a path, we followed it. One time, we tried following a descending trail into a body of water. Being the adventurous downhiller I am, I followed the rough descent only to end into a muddy shore of the lake. We just laughed it off and pushed our bikes back up.

The plains and rolling hills were reminiscent of the Sound of Music and you’d hear in your head Julia Andrew’s voice belching: “The hills are alive with the sound of music!” We even encountered Mr. Carabao lazily cooling off in its mud spa. It was such a relaxing easy ride, windy and not too hot.

We went back to the paved road which took us to the Lumban-Caliraya-Cavinti road. The day we were there, it was the town fiesta so everybody was in their festive mode partying, drinking, singing their videokes. We passed by another body of water, thinking it was still Caliraya Lake but it was not. We found out that it was another lake called Lumot.
Lumot Lake was so breathtaking, it deserves an Instagram post.

We pushed some more until we reached Bumbungan Ecopark, took some photographs by the natural springs, said hello to the locals washing their clothes by the stream and head back to camp. Our families were happily fooling around nature tripping. We ate our scrumptious late lunch together. We were dirty, muddy and totally happy. Ah, the joys of mountain biking!

WAWA RIVER EXTRAVAGANZA!To end the year, we revisited our favorite local trail which never ceases to bring fun and joy to all riders who want the complete package: the Wawa ride. WAWA BLACK SABBATH RIDE 2013 WAWA HOLIDAY RIDE 2013

The Wawa ride is a complete experience. I have told countless times before in my previous blogs that it is one complete ride.Ascent: Climb the Wall. For some, the Wall is no joking matter. It shall test your climbing skills, lungs and leg power. Granny is your best friend. Lock those forks (or make them stiff), raise those seat posts, and be ready to get high.Brunch: Early lunch, late breakfast. Fill up that hungry tummy before hitting the trail. Best place to eat is Giant, but if you want to go more posh, you can eat at Pestanos.Pintong Bokawe/ Casili Downhill: Drop the seat posts and go down down down for a long time. This is the true test of braking power, arm strength and strong will. I usually tell friends to release the brakes and just go with the flow. Braking usually brings bad spills and tocinos. Just look far and follow your line. All you need are balls. I also tell them to release the brakes every so often so the rotors won’t get too hot. treat your brake levers as if you had ABS (Anti-lock Braking System– or in the words of the old school manongs: Pitik pitik lang!).Swimming: After a long ride, nothing can be more relaxing than taking a dip into the cold natural river water of Wawa. Swim against the current, go scrub yourself with the round rocks or just laze around. It’s all up to you. This part basically completes the whole package.River crossing: Pedal at low gear, look at your line (avoid the big rocks) and pedal to the flow of the current. It is such a fulfillment when you cross the river at the other side of the bank.Technical riding by the baranggay: This is my favorite part. Go up or down, its bike handling skills time as you maneuver your bike through the crazy maze of houses around the dam. It is fun, it is technical and it is dangerous!Long Road home: Once you hit the road, its a long pedal way home. Battle the jeeps, tricycles and cars who cut by you and make you nervous. But it’s all part of the trip!THE USUAL SUSPECTS: a boyband reunion. swimming Euro style.Rides to Wawa always give me a weird feeling of exhaustion yet deep inside, you know you are well rested.